Akira Tozawa
On March 31, 2016, Tozawa was announced as a participant in WWE's Global Cruiserweight Series tournament, which was later renamed the "Cruiserweight Classic". The tournament began on June 23 with Tozawa defeating Kenneth Johnson in his first round match. On July 14, Tozawa defeated Jack Gallagher in his second round match. On August 26, Tozawa was eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinals by Gran Metalik. On the September 5 episode of Raw, Tozawa was announced as part of WWE's upcoming cruiserweight division. On November 2, Tozawa was announced as a roster member for the upcoming cruiserweight-centric 205 Live show. On February 6, 2017, Tozawa made his debut on Raw, defeating Drew Gulak. In June, Tozawa was recruited by Titus O'Neil to the "Titus Worldwide" stable and entered in a feud with the Cruiserweight Champion Neville. At the Great Balls of Fire event, Tozawa was unsuccessful in his first championship opportunity against Neville; however, he pinned Neville in a tag team match the next night. On the August 14 episode of Raw, Tozawa defeated Neville to win the Cruiserweight Championship. However, at SummerSlam, he dropped the title to Neville, ending the reign at 6 days. In late 2017, Tozawa quietly left Titus Worldwide. On the October 10 episode of 205 Live, Tozawa was attacked on the ramp by Drew Gulak, which began a rivalry. Tozawa was out of action for a few weeks until he returned on the October 31 episode of 205 Live, where he defeated Gulak. On the November 21 episode of 205 Live, Tozawa defeated Gulak in a Street Fight, ending their feud. In February 2018, Tozawa formed a tag team with Hideo Itami, and they defeated Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado on the March 13 episode of 205 Live, but got into a confrontation with them and their ally Kalisto post-match. After trading victories between each other, they finally lost a tornado tag team match to Metalik and Dorado on the April 17 episode of 205 Live after Tozawa accidentally kicked Itami. On the May 1 episode of 205 Live, Tozawa and Itami were defeated by The Brian Kendrick and Gentleman Jack Gallagher after another miscommunication between the two, after which Itami attacked Tozawa, thus ending their partnership. The following week, Tozawa was defeated by Itami. On the January 2, 2019, episode of 205 Live, he defeated Drew Gulak to qualify for the fatal four-way match at Royal Rumble for the Cruiserweight Championship, which was won by champion Buddy Murphy. On the February 14, 2019, episode of 205 Live, Tozawa defeated Cedric Alexander, Humberto Carrillo and Lio Rush to become the number one contender for the Cruiserweight Championship at the Elimination Chamber, where he was defeated by Murphy. On October 14, 2019, as part of the 2019 WWE Draft, Tozawa was drafted to the Raw brand. He made his debut on the November 18th edition of Raw, where he was defeated by Buddy Murphy. At Survivor Series, he unsuccessfully challenged for Lio Rush's Cruiserweight Championship in a triple threat match, also involving Kalisto. Three days later on the November 27th episode of NXT, Tozawa had a singles match with Rush for the Cruiserweight Title, as Rush had pinned Kalisto at Survivor Series. However, he failed to win the title. Tozawa continued appearing on Raw, losing to the likes of Drew McIntyre and Aleister Black. On the December 16 episode of Raw, he competed in a #1 Contender's Gauntlet match for the WWE United States Championship, where he was able to eliminate R-Truth but was eliminated by Ricochet. On the December 23 episode of Raw, Tozawa ambushed R-Truth outside Rockefeller Center to pin him and become the new 24/7 Champion. Later on in the night, Tozawa lost the title to a man impersonating Santa Claus. When R-Truth and Tozawa caught up to Santa, R-Truth pinned Santa to win back the title.Category:Raw Superstars Category:NXT Cruiserweight Champions Category:WWE 24/7 Champions